Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/299

 “Now I’ll measure outside the dead spot about five inches. That makes it ten inches wide; now to cut it out. But I must work carefully, so I can replace the bark. For if Bub or Abner should find it I’d have to confess and then they’d joke me ever after.”

Composing himself he quickly cut the four sides of the panel of bark and drawing a long breath wrenched it loose. With an inarticulate cry he stood dumbfounded. There on the tree, clearly outlined in every detail, was the linked circles crossed by the arrow, just as they had found it on the other beech. There were the original owners’ initials, also.

“Can it be! Can it possibly be!” he repeated over and over, staring with mouth agape at the ancient record preserved in the tree trunk.

“Am I dreaming, or is it real?” he whispered, pinching himself to make sure he was not asleep. But there was no doubt of his important discovery and his heart expanded and he felt dizzy as he faintly realized this one tree was worth more than a tenth of a million dollars as it stood.

Finally he collected his scattered senses and examined the panel of bark. Here he had new reason for wonderment and exultation. For